Tag: Throwback

On copying and collaboration
A graphic design saying, “Libre Sakay!” or “Free Ride!” in the style of a Philippine public transportation destination signage.

One of the items in the reading list is about copying and how it is inherent to design (and child development, actually). As designers, we pride ourselves of our originality — personally, to the point of stubbornness. I recall a period in my career when I avoided looking at other people’s works as inspiration — out of fear of being unoriginal. It was pride, as I retrospect.

Collaboration is key to almost anything one wants to accomplish efficiently. All of us rely on each other even indirectly. Copying is inevitable in a world where no person is an island. Legalities and what your conscience says, that’s a different story.

A graphic design saying, “Free as in free beer”.

Sharing for free

“Really, you’re giving it away for free?” A mentee uttered in surprise (pertaining to a solicited advice). Perhaps our session provided her with some nuggets of wisdom (as it should be). I could imagine lightbulbs flashing in her mind as we discussed about her career.

“This is also how I got them through the years,” I said, “for free”.

To all the generous folks out there sharing their thoughts, resources, and anything that helps anyone, I’m also paying it forward.

In the spirit of copying

I liked the style of the copying article so I replicated it in the “Libre Sakay!” graphic design. If you would like to spin it out yourself, feel free!
2020-10-26
Hair Chronicles – October 2016

A collage of Brian Dys cutting his hair. 18 Oct 2016

A collage of Brian Dys cutting his hair. 18 Oct 2016

2016-10-18
Of Oddness and Obsolescence – The Twilight Zone No. 153
The Brain Center at Whipple’s

Technician (T): Mr. Whipple, have you looked around this place lately?

Mr. Whipple (W): Looked around?

T: The cafeteria, for example. It’s like a cave. Not a soul in there. Just a few vending machines and music coming thru a loud speaker. You walked around the parking lot? It’s a dessert. No cars, no people.

W: How very enlightening!

T: This place has every thing now in the way of efficiency. But do you know what it lacks?

W: Don’t tell me.

T: Voices. Laughter. Just whatever it is that makes people feel for people. That’s what it lacks! This is a lousy place to work in, Mr. Whipple.

(Excerpt from the dialogue of Mr. Whipple and the Technician.)

Closing narration:

There are many bromides applicable here. Too much of a good thing, tiger by the tail, as you sow so shall you reap.
The point is that too often, man becomes clever instead of becoming wise. He becomes inventive but not thoughtful. And sometimes, as in the case of Mr. Whipple, he can create himself right out of existence.
Tonight’s tale of oddness and obsolescence from the Twilight Zone.
Rod Serling

References
- IMDb
- Wikipedia
2016-08-21
IdeaSpace x AIM: Entrepreneurship Development Program – Day 1

IdeaSpace enrolled us in Entrepreneurship Development Program of AIM in order to supercharge our ventures with enough resources.

Excited for new things to learn and at the same time at a loss – that’s how I am facing tougher times and bigger challenges for the idea that my colleagues and I are nurturing. Or should I accurately say, battering?

Oh yes. Beating and battering. As quoted by Professor Richard Cruz, great philosopher Michael Gerard Tyson said,

Everybody’s got a plan… until they get punched in the face.

That’s the watered-down quote that is apt in preparing startup founders who will face investors in the ring. Here’s the original in all its wisdom:

Everybody’s got a plan until they get hit in the mouth. Watch what you say and who you say it to today. pic.twitter.com/DYiQO11Wpj
— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) July 9, 2013

You know what’s coming. So watch out!

Here we are, from left to right: Jason, myself, and Ezra – with smiles still on.

2016-08-09
Phone and Mouse

The Phone

The year was 1998. The place, Taft Ave., Manila. Clad in plaid shirt and my khaki slacks were accentuated by a brick in the left side pocket. It was a Nokia pre-5110 model (similar to the one pictured below). I took it out of my pocket, extruded the antenna to gather some signal and called my mom.

Nokia and a regular bill – not to scale. But believe me, cellular phones were big in all dimensions.

“I just finished the exam,” I said with a sigh of relief.

“DLSU Engineering, here I come.” I smugly slid back the cellular phone into my pocket.

The Mouse

The Gyromite device was cool.

No doubt that kids are attracted to pretty graphics. That’s why my grade 3 classmate who owned a personal computer was more popular by owning a Gyromite device with his Nintendo.

The PC screen was black and white and sported a keyboard and a dot-matrix printer. We used it to type and print some school papers. Then we’d trade NES game cartridges and play ping-pong on their dinner table.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/167961809″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”164″ iframe=”true” /]

The mouse in the house came a little later in ’95. It had a ball that gathered dirt. And yeah, the PC screen was colored already and said Windows 95.

Older than you folks out there.

The “balled” mouse dies eventually.

We might feel that technology is leaving us behind especially if we try to keep up with it. But just like the phone and mouse, they simply evolve into more functional tools – the mouse lost its tail – the phone dropped its antenna and dissolved physical buttons – but they are still the phone and mouse we use to communicate with someone and control something, respectively (or soon interchangeably).

Maybe one day they will be totally transformed into something that we won’t recognize anymore (as compared with the pictures) — that’s how evolution goes as far as survival is concerned – you adapt and evolve or you simply perish and be forgotten.

2014-09-16
Android vs. iOS: Context Menu

I’ve first used an iPhone and iPad before I experienced using an Android (particularly a meager Samsung Galaxy Y with Android 2.3). The very natural controls of Android were the static/consistent position of Back and its context menus (long pressing certain items particularly lists).

Then I had to use iPhone again and kept on tapping on the wrong places. Yes, it is all about habit and conditioning but I’d still find that back button useful for iPhone (instead of having it on the top toolbar).

A spoof of iPhone 5 and its back button.

And the context menu. Why do I need to take extra steps in deleting or editing an item? For example, I would like to delete a contact; in Android, long pressing a contact would bring up a context menu while in iPhone you would need to find the Edit button and find out what is available to edit.

I remember in the era of DHTML, right-click customized menus in webpages were made available. But it was against the norm and it was new and people just wanted to stick with what’s recognizable.

That shouldn’t happen in these times. We should be innovating towards what would make the lives of people easier and better (or at least not harder or worse).

A time will come when everything would have context menus. You would have an option to do something to anything you right-click on or long-press on. Or maybe to anything you point your Wikipedia gun at.

2012-10-24